I returned yesterday from a conference in Orlando. It was a New Manager's Training for all new promotees in my company. I must admit, I went with very low expectations, ready to be bored to tears with videos of respect at work examples and cheesy corporate cheering.
To begin with I was overawed by the 1200 other people in the room when I arrived. Who knew there were that many people in the same point in their career as me, in the same company? The second impression was how cool the setup was. I managed to get to walk around the stage and audiovisual setup and I was really impressed with the professionalism of the huge cameras and rear projection equipment, the "green room" mock up and the lighted walkways for the speakers to avoid tripping on the inches-thick cables running everywhere. They went all out with real time concert like zooming on the speakers, combined with fancy lighting, and slide projection.
I sat at the back, ready to make my move without being noticed the instant they started asking us to participate in any kind of cheering. I was suitably impressed though with the CEO's appearance and crazy flight schedule which meant that he flew back to NYC for a client meeting and then back to Orlando to make an appearance at the Karaoke later that same night. The speaker that made the difference though told the following story and was so charismatic he had me believing and listening for the rest of the conference.
3 months before he had undergone the usual annual checkup at the doctor. The doctor reported that in addition to the usual findings that he needed to quit smoking and exercise more, they had found a lump. The doctor recommended that he return in a week for more tests. He asked straight out, "What does this mean?" and the doctor replied, "It could mean anything. 30 weeks, 30 months or 30 years." So the guy goes home and he's thinking, "30 weeks?" He spends the week worried about everyone else, putting his will in order, getting in touch with people he hasn't had a chance to catch up. On the way back to the doctor in the car with his wife, he thinks, "It could be 29 weeks now" and he's distracted. And then his wife said, "So, have you enjoyed the ride?" And it made him think.
He put it out to everyone, that if that ever happened to them, in 50 years time, if someone says, "Have you enjoyed the ride?" that you should spend your life living to answer with a resounding Yes. So what would it take for you to say yes? Think about it for a minute and when you wake up tomorrow, or when you're stressed at work or when you're down about the way things are going, come up with a plan to get to the place that you know will give you that YES.
